Friday, February 16, 2007

Billy Bombers American Diner

We came down to The Central at Clarke Quay tonight to see what kind of new places were open, especially since many of them were supposed to be Japanese. To our dismay, most of the shops weren't even open yet, aside from a Kopitiam food court, a branch of Waraku, and a sign for a Tomton outlet to come. There was some place called Manhattan Fish Market that looked too much like that nasty Fish & Co place to be good. What was left then? Billy Bombers, an American diner dressed up like Johnny Rockets that has been in Singapore for ages, but also one that I had never really paid a proper visit to. We might as well give it a shot...it's not like there was much else to choose from.

It was typical diner fare, with burgers, floats, and shakes. I grabbed a "Naked Gun" burger, so called because it was very basic, without any cheese, onion rings, bacon toppings, or anything like that. While the size of the patty was eclipsed by the size of the bun (remember "Where's the beef?"), this was at least fairly straightforward. Still, there wasn't anything edgy enough that I would crave it. (Hey Kurt, the pickle you see in the photo was unfortunately of the sweet variety.)

We also got some buffalo wings and chili to see how they would fare. Fortunately, they got the sauce right (yay!), but alas, it still suffered from a consistent problem with wings here: they were plain and simply too big, with way too much meat on the bones (there was so much that I could literally eat them with a knife and fork!). The chili at least wasn't surrounded by tortilla chips here like at Jerry's, but it was still way too heavy on the meat.

So...Billy Bombers: better than Jerry's? Yes, although I didn't exactly try the ribs here. Is this someplace I'd come back to? Not likely. At least I finally gave it a proper try though (last time, it was through a delivery service after which everything got soggy).

7 comments:

Alan
said...

Hi - I agree with you about not breading wings and the need for a butter/Louisiana style hot sauce (Frank's, Durkee's, etc. Tabasco only as a last resort), but what's up with the "too big" thing? Wings tend to be a little bigger here, but that isn't something I'd thought of as a negative.

"For me, the primary objective of eating the wings is the crispy fried skin rather than the meat itself"

Ah, I see. Makes sense.

Here's a thought - I'm 90% certain that Botak Jones is run by the same Bernie who used to have a *great* blues club in Boat Quay called "Bernie Goes to Town." As I reacall, he was pretty proud of the wings he served there. They weren't Buffalo style, but were decent (if a bit on the large size). Maybe we can convince him that wings are a mandatory part of an "American Eatrey's" menu, and get him to put a new item on Botak Jones' menu - Buffalo style middle wing sections.